


Why Does Erik Speak Polish in X-Men Apocalypse?

by FourAlignments



Series: Musings and Analysis of X-Men [1]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Character Study, Discussion of Antisemitism, Essay, Explaining why Erik speaks Polish, Fandom Meta - Freeform, French Revolution, German History, Historical analysis, Meta, Non-fic, OpEd, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Polish history, Religious Conflict, Religious Persecution, WWI History, WWII History, do not copy to another site, jewish history
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25187845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FourAlignments/pseuds/FourAlignments
Summary: So why does Erik, a German Jew know a Polish lullaby if he is from Dusseldorf originally? Perplexing X-Men fans ever since X-Men Apocalypse first came out in theaters.Sometimes I ramble, post analysis in Tumblr. Hashkivenu (or Quill18) recommended that I post my essays here.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Magda (X-Men), Nina Gurzsky & Erik Lehnsherr
Series: Musings and Analysis of X-Men [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824655
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Why Does Erik Speak Polish in X-Men Apocalypse?

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on Tumblr. I do want to repeat this is an ESSAY not a fanfiction. If you were excepting   
> another fic, I am sorry. I do work on other things. I don't know what to tell you. But I am working on fics in the meantime. I just don't take movies, TV show, Cartoons, anime or other media at face value. I actually enjoy doing analysis and writing essays. I'm very critical of the things that I do watch and if I can educated my fellow fans. I consider that to be a win. 
> 
> On a side note, World War I, the Roaring 20s and Interwar Europe are my favorite time period to study. It doesn't mean I don't study any other history. I currently have All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer by the American Coup in Iran in 1953 and Bitter Fruit by Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer about the overthrow the democratic government of Guatemala in 1954; I just really like to read and learn. 
> 
> So enjoy my essay!

> mickisnotclever
> 
> I’ve been wondering for years now, does anyone know if there is a (strictly in-film only, cause comics are a whole other monster) canon explanation of how Erik learned a Polish lullaby from his German parents? I’ve been searching about it since Apocalypse first came out and I’ve never found anything. 
> 
> Referring to this scene: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBYgqQFhHSQ>

This can be explain with a little bit of German-Polish and Jewish history. 

Canonically speaking Erik would be considered a Ashkenazi Jew, which settled in German and Eastern Europe; in this tradition of speaking Yiddish (Erik also speaks this language in canon), Matzah ball soup, brisket, and tzimmes come from here. There are also Romaniote Jews of the Eastern Mediterranean, Sephardi Jews of Spain and Portugal with regional variations in cuisine and practices. Judaism is not a monoculture. 

Ashkenazi Jew settled in the Holy Roman Empire (Current day Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech and Slovak Republics, as well as parts of eastern France, northern Italy, Slovenia) in the first millennium. However due to religious persecution shifted into areas of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (made up of parts of present day Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine) in the late Middle ages (15th and 16 century). The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the time of Counter-Reformation in Europe, this was the Catholics response to the Protestant Reformation, this is where the Spanish Inquisition and the European Wars of Religion come from. Yikes... But anyway, was known for its high religious tolerance with the Warsaw Confederation and with peaceful coexisting Roman Catholic, Jewish, Orthodox Christian, Protestant and Muslim ([Sufi](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSufism&t=Njg1ZDE0NDY0ZDQ0YTJmNzA3MjA0NmE5MmFhMDhkMzM0NTkxOWE1Niw4ODg1ZjI2MjZhZTM1N2ZhOWFkYWIzZTc2YmQ2MzFlZjQyODg4NDUw)) communities.

However due to a series of wars, invasions, and uprisings: Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–1657), Second Northern War (1655–1660), Lubomirski's rebellion (1665-66), which lead to the John II Casimir abdicated the throne and fleeing to France. Micheal I was elected to the throne and then the Polish-Ottoman war broke out and continued under his successor rein. But the end of the war the Commonwealth had been reduced to a protectorate of the Russian from being a major European power in the First Partition of Poland. 

By the time Catherine the Great took the throne in Russia, fully expecting Poland to loyal to Russian interest in greater Europe. The commonwealth signed the May Constitution making the state more of a monarchic republic. Russia wasn’t having it. In the Polish–Russian War of 1792, King Poniatowski capitulated hoping for a diplomatic solution, but the Polish Parliament under duress annulled the Constitution, which lead to the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 with Prussia (Germany) and Russia taking more land. 

With the French Revolution underway, the Polish people had enough with Prussia and Russia occupying their land leading to a series of uprising and riots nationwide in the beginning of Kościuszko Uprising. But the uprising were crushed in November 1794 leading to the Third Partition and Poland ceasing to exist as an independent nation-state for the next 123 years.

This is a picture of Europe before WWI. 

Then in the aftermath of WWI Poland finally became a nation again with the Treaty of Versailles. Then not five minutes later, both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union divided up Poland in their non-aggression pact. Following WWII Poland became a nation again under the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland which transitioned to Polish People's Republic (which we see in Apocalypse). 

So what does this have to do with Erik? Well a lot actually, and again Canon-ly speaking in _First Class_ Erik says he is from Dusseldorf which sits right on the Rhine River. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of his parents came from Poland if not both, but by WWI it was a part of Germany so they could have migrated from Eastern Germany (Poland territory) to Dusseldorf. It can be explained that due to outbreaks of famine in much of the German Empire due to the British Blockade, or even being displaced due to the war on the Eastern Front, and even persecution, pogroms, massacres and rampant antisemitism with the Russian Revolution Bolshevikism conspiracy or all the above. 

That’s the reason why Erik knows this Polish lullaby because he grew up in a German-Polish home in Dusseldorf speaking German, Polish, and Yiddish, and some Romani on the side to impress Magda. I know in the comics his family fled to Poland and perhaps one of the reasons why was because he had an actual family there to go to. It is in the slim realm of possibility, but Erik could have a distant relative that survived. 

**Author's Note:**

> Commenting, giving kudos, and subscribing will make this author's day even more brighter. 
> 
> I am also on Tumblr!


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